Doing a 180: Morcheeba, The Waterboys, and The Yardbirds

We’ve got quite the trifecta of albums being reissued on 180-gram vinyl this week, and even though none of them sound a thing like each other, we can assure you that they’re all quite good in their own right.

Morcheeba, Big Calm: A little bit rock, a little bit dance, and a little bit trip-hop (among various other styles), the music of Morcheeba has always fought an uphill battle in the US, where mainstream audiences have a tendency to prefer their artists to start out sounding a particular way and just kind of stay there. In their native UK, however, they’ve got a strong following that’s netted them several hit records, and if there’s one of their efforts that’s considered to be their signature album, it’s this one, which features the hit singles “Part of the Process,” “Let Me See,” “Shoulder Holster,” and “Blindfold.”

The Waterboys, This Is the Sea: When it comes to Mike Scott and his band, The Waterboys, there’s kind of an unofficial consensus between most rock critics that their masterwork is their 1988 album, Fisherman’s Blues. If there’s an album that’s generally thought of as the band’s breakthrough, however, it’s This Is the Sea, and if you’re an elitist who sniffs, “Well, they broke through with me with their first album,” that’s true, but the casual Waterboys fan knows this album because it’s the one that contains their biggest hit, “The Whole of the Moon,” which is just about enough reason in and of itself to buy the whole record.

The Yardbirds, Little Games: By 1967, the lineup of The Yardbirds was in serious flux, thanks to guitarist Eric Clapton decamping to fry bigger musical fish, but there’s quite a lot to recommend about Little Games, starting with the fact that rock fans really can’t go wrong with a record that features Jimmy Page on guitar and John Paul Jones assisting on bass and cello and orchestral arrangements. Songs like “Ha Ha Said the Clown,” “Ten Little Indians,” and the title track might not compare to classic singles like “For Your Love” and “Heart Full of Soul,” but they capture an era of the band that found Mr. Page poised for greater things, making it a historical document worthy of your time.